Charge Conference: The Importance of this Annual Meeting

Today at Bell Springs UMC we will be engaged in our annual Charge Conference later this evening.  For today's devotional, we're going to talk about the purpose, function and composition of the Charge Conference, as well as how this meeting may function differently in certain circumstances.

1. Holy Conferencing

Perhaps the biggest reason we hold Charge Conference each year is to have the opportunity to engage in holy conferencing, the act of gathering to plan for doing God's work in our community.  Sharing ideas, prayer and discussing the past and future of our church is all a part of holy conferencing.  Yes, we gather weekly during worship, but the purpose for holy conferencing is different in that we are worshipping through administration of our resources, our situation and our gifts and graces.  Furthermore, holy conferencing includes people from outside of the local church, such as the District Superintendent and other volunteers from the conference.  This is a unique time set aside for the mutual upbuilding of the church.

2. Celebrating God's Works

Another important part of the Charge Conference is to celebrate God's works over the past year.  First, the local church will report many of these works through different documents, such as the Pastor's Report, Finance Report, Trustees' Report, etc.  Secondly, we will discuss together how God has been moving in our congregation over the past year and perhaps further, giving thanks for the actions of the Holy Spirit in thriving our church.  Moreover, at the Charge Conference we have the privilege of witnessing these works to one another and therefore to take them to others in our community.  Gathering all of the information and stories together helps us not to forget how good God has been to us in the past.

3. Planning for the Future

Just as the Charge Conference looks in thankfulness to the past, it also turns an eye into the future to where God is leading us as a congregation.  Already, our congregation has begun to lay a framework for administering the church in 2016, and many of these key elements will be voted on and approved by the Charge Conference this evening.  Some examples include our annual budget, the pastor's salary, and our leadership team.  Preparing the way for the future, such that our church is able to live truly into God's will for our community, is a significant purpose of the Charge Conference.  Without prior planning, we might spend more of that future on unnecessary and costly administration when we could have been ready for making disciples of Jesus Christ for the glory of God's Kingdom.

4. Unifying the Congregation

Still another important piece of the Charge Conference is to help create and extend unity among the different families and leaders in the church.  The stories we tell of God's works in the past and future projects will bind us together further as a family, as we will be then given the opportunity to pray for one another, even for those ministries in which we do not directly have a hand.  Furthermore, reporting the various ministries of the church helps to keep everyone on the same page and quells rumors and misunderstandings which could hinder our shared work in the future.  Finally, the Charge Conference helps to illumine the ways in which our church is working with other churches in the connection or outside of the connection towards building the Kingdom of God.  All of these actions help to bind us together in the Holy Spirit through improved communication, prayer and mutual understanding.

5. Episcopal Partnership

The fifth and final point I'd like to make about the Charge Conference is that it is a time for the episcopacy, that is, the leadership of the bishop and his/her superintendent, to directly connect and partner with the local church towards shared ministry in the conference.  Once again, as United Methodists, we do not exist in a vacuum, and our church is not isolated from all others; we are united and in partnership with all other United Methodist churches directly through the oversight and leadership of the episcopacy.  This relationship is reciprocal; our church supports the wider mission of the United Methodist Church, and the wider United Methodist Church supports our church in our mission directly to our community.  The time we set aside for this Charge Conference allows for the episcopacy to analyze how they are best able to assist us in the local church.  The annual Charge Conference solidifies the relationship between the episcopacy through the district superintendent and the local church at Bell Springs UMC.  

Ways of Conducting the Charge Conference

There is more than one way to conduct the church's Charge Conference each year, which might be confusing.  The district superintendent is directly responsible for receiving the church's reports from each year and for engaging in this holy conferencing; but exactly how he/she does this is flexible.  Currently in the Murfreesboro District (which includes our church), the Rev. Dr. LeNoir Culbertson conducts Charge Conferences in what are known as clusters.  Multiple churches will gather together at a central location in their neighborhood to report and conference together as one.  Individual churches will vote on their business individually, but then the church representatives will gather together from many churches to celebrate and converse.  This helps to extend connectivity between churches in a geographical area, as well as free up the district superintendent's resources to allow for a better Charge Conference.

However, there are exceptions to this rule.  For example, this year, churches who have had a pastoral change in 2015 will conduct their Charge Conference individually at their building.  We at Bell Springs UMC are in this category; since the pastor has arrived in June of this year, we will otherwise be alone.  This is not a punishment by any means!  First, a new pastor is likely to need extra guidance under the supervision of a new district superintendent as to what he/she expects in preparation.  Also, the local church may need more time to discuss the pastoral transition with the district superintendent.  Since pastoral transitions tend to bring about a lot of change in the local church, our district superintendent has elected to hold our Charge Conference independently to provide the extra episcopal partnership we may need.

But in the future we will almost certainly see new ways of holding the Charge Conference.  In previous churches where I have served, I have seen a hybrid of the above two systems, where paperwork was handled separately from conferencing, with ordained pastors leading the voting, without the presence of the district superintendent.  The Book of Discipline, the United Methodist book of church law, allows for flexibility and creativity dependent upon the situation of the local church and episcopacy.  And my prayer is that in the future, we would also be flexible should we be asked to undergo Charge Conference in a new way.  

The above five points, however, do not change from area to area.  At all United Methodist Charge Conferences, there needs to be an opportunity for holy conferencing between all present, which by the way includes any member of the local church who wishes to attend.  No matter where we are, the Charge Conference should be looking to the past in thankfulness of God's loving works, while also planning ahead into the future to await God's plans.  The Charge Conference should always develop connectivity, trust and partnership between the members of the church, as well as between the church and episcopacy.  This is an opportunity for all to gather in God's name for the upbuilding of God's Kingdom.

And no matter how we gather, whether at Charge Conference or otherwise throughout the year, let us always do so in gentleness and love, as is befitting our identity in Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior, who is, and was, and is to come again.